Kernaghan threw out his hands. "An' you're the man they say's the
cleverest steppin' between Winnipeg and the Mountains--an'--an'--you talk
to me like that! Is the ould fella always in the house? Is he always
upstairs? I ask you now. I'll tell you this, y'r anner--"

The Young Doctor interrupted him. "Don't you suppose that there's
somebody always watching, Patsy--the half-breed, the Chinaman?"

Kernaghan snapped a finger. "Aw, must I be y'r schoolmaster in the days
of your dotage! Of course the ould fella has someone to watch, an' I
dunno which it is--the Chinaman or the half-breed wumman. But I'll tell
you this: they'll take his pay and lie to him about whatever's goin' on
inside the house. That girl has them both in the palms of her hands.
Let him set what spies he will, she'll do what she wants, if the young
man lets her."

"His mother--" interjected the Young Doctor. "Her of the plumage--her!
Shure, she's not livin' in this wurruld. She's only visitin' it. She's
got no responsibility. If iver there was a child of a fairy tale, that
wumman's the child. I belave she'd think her son was doin' right if he
tied the ould fella up to a tree an' stuck him as full of Ingin arrows as
a pin-cushion, an' rode off with the lovely little lady in beyant there.
That's my mind about her. It isn't on her you can rely. If ye want the
truth, y'r anner, them two young people have had words together and
plenty of them, whether it's across the hall--her room from his; or in
his room; or through the windy or down the chimney-shure, I don't care!
They've spoke. There's that between them wants watchin'. Not that
there's wrong in aither of them--divil a bit! I've got me own mind about
Mr. Orlando Giggles. As for her, the purty thing, she doesn't know what
wrong is--that's the worst of it!"